The Ties That Bind
by Marauderish Mischief Maker
Summary: Anna and Robert are overjoyed when a dear friend comes back to Port Charles with proof their daughter is alive (and a mission of her own- save her husband.) When anyone's life be the same? Rewriting the 2013 veteran returns.
1. Chapter 1

"I should be sitting right next to you."

The man who spoke from the screen was in his mid-seventies and would've looked like death warmed over to everyone except his wife, who was simply grateful she had returned from a less than triumphant trip to England to find her husband still among the living.

"Sean," Tiffany Donely sighed, "I want that more than anything in this world, honey, you know I do, but we've had this conversation a million times."

"And I heard you."

"If by heard you mean everything I said went in one ear and out the other, then yes, my darling, you certainly did. Don't think for a second that Anna didn't tell me about how she and the groundskeepers had to force you back into bed after Luke and Holly finally left."

"I really should be angry with her for blabbing," Sean mused, "but I guess any product of the two of us was doomed to get the stubborn gene."

"And lucky for you that she has it because you're in no condition to go traipsing halfway around the world to Port Charles. I'm thrilled you and Luke made this deal, and I promise that when he gives me the name of the doctor who made the antidote, I'll find a little something to show him just how thankful we are. Maybe you could overnight him a nice Irish whiskey."

Sean gave a weak laugh that warmed Tiffany's heart nonetheless.

"They recommend that the poisoned stay off the sauce, but then again since when has Luke Spencer done what he's supposed to do? Either way, this isn't just about Spencer, Tiffany."

"Well then, who else is involved?"

"It's a long story."

"Darling, I am on an eight-hour flight with no other company than a very shy pilot from the WSB, I've got nothing but time."

"All right you know that Spencer gave us the tip about Jerry Jacks' lab in Corinth?"

"I also know that Jacks had abandoned the place by the time anybody got there."

"Not exactly, an accomplice of his was still on the premises, Frau Doktor Liesl Obrecht."

"That's the mad woman who put Robert in a coma?"

"The very same."

"Well, that's just marvelous, isn't it? Now we have two loons on the loose!"

Sean nodded. "Only the mad genius wasn't genius enough to engineer a cure, so our sources say she found—kidnapped—a very capable doctor. They say she went underground, but not far enough to escape Anna's radar."

Tiffany had had to give up her job in Boston when trouble with The Balkan had forced the family to relocate, but her reporting instincts were alive and well and they were telling her that Sean's attempt at sounding detached was falling flat.

"Tell me more about the other doctor," she coaxed, dropping her voice to the low purr Sean never could resist for long, "do we happen to know this brilliant earth angel?"

"It's Robin, Tiff, she's alive!"


	2. Chapter 2

"Damn," hissed Carly Jacks as she stained a page of the Metro Court's reservation book with coffee.

The offending distraction came from her harassed-looking business partner Olivia Falconeri, who had plowed into someone juggling three wheeled suitcases. "Why don't you watch where you're going, next time, hmmm?"

Carly found the blonde woman oddly familiar, especially when a Southern drawl came out of her mouth. "Why don't you try 'excuse me' next time," she shot back, "works like a charm."

"Olivia," Carly called, coming around the desk. "Why don't you call it a day, I can take it from here."

"You're right…Carly's right. I'm so sorry, ma'am I'm not myself."

"You're not." Carly put her hands on Olivia's shoulders. "Which is why you need to go over and see that baby girl you've been thinking so much about. Tell Dante and Lulu I'm thinking about them."

" _Lulu's still living in Port Charles,"_ Tiffany smiled.

It seemed a visit to her goddaughter was in order. But first thing was first, telling Anna the big news.

"I'd like to book a suite, please?"

"Sure." Carly went back to flipping through the reservations again. "How long do you think you'll be staying?"

"I'm not all that sure." Tiffany was slightly unsettled as Carly began to stare. "What's the matter, do I have some lipstick on my teeth?"

Carly laughed. "No, no, I just figured out how I knew you, that's all. My brother Lucas sent me clips of some interviews you'd done in Boston."

"Oh, well aren't you sweet."

Carly waved at a bellboy. "Could you take Mrs. Donely's luggage up to suite 501? Thank you."

"One more thing, darling," said Tiffany. "Do you know if Kelly's is still open? That plane ride left me starved."

"If you're fast, you'll catch them before the rush. Oh, and the manager makes a grilled cheese that's great for dealing with jetlag."

Tiffany had just ordered her sandwich when she encountered the last person she had expected to see.

"Oh my goodness, Duke!" She beckoned to the man as he slipped his phone into the pocket of his suit jacket. "Duke Lavery!"

"In the flesh, and very much alive."

"What a sight for sore eyes," Tiffany cried, pulling her old friend into an embrace. "Oh, I'm thrilled to see you, darling."

"And I you," Duke joked, kissing Tiffany's knuckles gently,

"Do you know where Anna is? I have something that she needs to know right away!"

"Funny, you should say that, because Anna just called me from Switzerland with some important news of her own. Robert's awake," Duke said, at the same time Tiffany squealed:

"Robin's alive!"


	3. Chapter 3

Anna Devane stood open-mouthed in a tiny hospital room in Lucerne Switzerland, listening to Robert Scorpio insist that he had seen their late daughter, Robin, alive and well in that very same clinic. She knew, however, that it couldn't be true. After all, Robert had been in a coma for nearly a year… He was confused and disoriented, and Anna told him so.

He was confused and disoriented, and Anna told him so.

"No, no, I'm not confused," Robert insisted. "I've never been surer of anything in my life."

"What you need is to take care of yourself, Robert!"

"How can I, when I know my daughter, _our_ daughter is out there somewhere? Obrecht, that bitch, she took our daughter and we have to find her!"

"Robert," Anna practically screamed. Her level of anxiety was so high that it leaked into her voice. "You need, _listen to me,_ you need to lie down and rest, and I…" Her phone rang. "I have to take this, it could involve a kidnapped baby. Hello…"

In the space of five seconds, Robert could tell that the phone call had nothing to do with any of the PCPD's open cases. It was Lavery, and whatever he had to say was entirely unwelcome.

"I don't know what this is, Duke," Anna was yelling, "So I'll just tell you what it's not. It's not possible and it's certainly not funny. I'd say there was something in the harbor water again, but Robert's here trying to convince me of the exact same thing, and I'm going to chalk it up to the fact that you're both thinking about her with her birthday coming up!

* * *

"The _phone_ ," Tiffany hissed in Duke's ear. "Gimme the phone." Duke shrugged as if to wish her good luck.

"Anna, it's Tiffany. I know I sound crazy, honey—absolutely out of my gourd—but I came to Port Charles to tell you that Robin _is_ alive. I swear it on Sean's life, which I know is going to be long and healthy if Robin and her polonium cure have anything to do with it."

"Sean?" Anna had to admit she was taken aback.

"Yeah, it seems the Pickled Organ Club has a heavy presence in Port Charles. When the multimillion-dollar miracle cure Jerry Jacks paid Faison for wasn't as advertised, they went doc shopping at a Swiss clinic called—"

"Die Klinik den Geist zu Heilen," Anna gasped while Robert nodded vigorously.

It made a twisted sort of sense that Faison, who had donned a sophisticated Duke mask in order to get into Anna's good graces, would see Anna's kidnapped daughter as yet another link to his "beloved."

"All right, Robert, I need you to tell me everything you remember. No detail is too small."

"We've been through the details, Anna!" Robert let out a measured breath and continued in a slightly calmer tone. "I left you and Duke in his hospital room, and went down the corridor because I heard voices. Two female voices, one of them muffled. I burst in the room and found Robin restrained and gagged while Obrecht was standing over her bed with a syringe, so we struggled. Off I went to the Dreamland. Then I woke up, and the doctors got you and Mac on the horn. Speaking of Mack…"

"No, absolutely not, I won't get Mac's hopes up like that!"

"If you were worried about me getting my hopes up, you should have kept your voices down," spoke Mac from the doorway


	4. Chapter 4

**Make of this what you will, because I love how the ship camps have already started make their cases. Feedback and opinions always welcome**

Dr. Patrick Drake smiled as he rounded the corner and came in sight of the General Hospital nurses' station where an excited Danny Morgan sat in his car seat while his mother Sam was making final discharge arrangements with Epiphany Johnson.

"What's this? Did you think you'd go home without to say goodbye?" Patrick teased.

Sam laughed. "Forget about our hero, never!"

"'Hero', huh?" Patrick mused. "I thought that title would go to Silas Clay."

"Silas could never have treated Danny if you hadn't kept me from killing him in the first place," Sam pointed out.

"There's that. His bedside manner was a little—"

"Unsympathetic, arrogant, abrasive?"

"All the above," Patrick allowed. "I wasn't that bad at first, was I?"

"You, my friend, were the one who stood by me this whole time. Without you, I would've climbed the walls ages ago."

"Maybe Silas would've grown on you too."

Sam shifted her grip on the car seat and followed Patrick's lead, to the window seat. "You think?" she said skeptically. "I guess we'll never know what might have happened between Silas and me now that he's taken Rafe back to New York. I do know that I'll always be indebted to both of you for saving Danny's life. Seriously, Patrick, I owe you, if there's anything I can ever do just ask."

"How much time do you have?"

"That seems like a loaded question. Why don't you just start from the beginning and we'll go from there."

"It's nothing, I just… I took off my wedding ring."

Sam hummed in understanding. "Oh my God. Patrick, that's not nothing, it's a huge step. Do you wanna know what I think?"

"Please."

"I think if that ring is keeping you tied to the memories and loss of the past…I think Robin would be the first person to tell you to take it off. She wouldn't want you and Emma to dwell and pine, she'd want to look down on the beautiful future you and Emma have with Sabrina."

Patrick smiled softly. "When did you get so wise, Samantha Morgan?"

"Just echoing the advice an old friend gave me about Jason," Sam winked as she played with her own wedding band.

"Old, really?"

Sam laughed.

"If the man you were talking about happened to be me, I would have to take issue with the word 'old."

"If the man I was talking about happened to you I would have to argue the point, but right now, I have to get Danny over to my Mom's house so he can be spoiled with homecoming presents and cake and still in bed before midnight."

"Get going, then. You have a lot to celebrate."

"Yes, we do."

The friends shared a quick hug. "Hey, Sam?"

"Hmmm?"

"Thanks."

"Always."


End file.
